Viruses, Bacteria, and Prions

677 Words2 Pages

Viruses, bacteria, and prions are sometimes dangerous, but they can also do some good. These three microorganisms have some similarities and some differences. These microorganisms or organic particles range in size from prions being the smallest to bacteria usually being the biggest. These microorganisms are capable of more than you might think.
Although viruses are responsible for many diseases, it has been debated whether or not they are organisms based of how the reproduce, which they do so by manipulating a host species. The general structure of viruses includes a polygonal capsid, spikes, and an envelope around the DNA. The capsid surrounds the nucleic acid and the spike are the receptors. These receptors are host specific. Viruses can effect humans, animals, plants, and bacteria.
The reproduction cycles for viruses are the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle. In the lytic cycle there is attachment, when the virus’ receptor combines with the host, penetration, when the DNA is injected into the host cell, biosynthesis, when the virus takes over the host cells functions and makes it replicate the viral DNA and manufacture the capsids, maturation, when the DNA and capsids are assembled, and release, when the fully formed capsids are released into the host organism to infect more host cells.
HIV, the flu, and the common cold are examples of diseases caused by viruses. HIV is caused by a retrovirus that goes through the lysogenic cycle. The lysogenic cycle is when the virus is latent and waits for conditions to be right before it becomes active and starts affecting its host. Also in the lysogenic cycle viral DNA is integrated with the host DNA making it harder to be recognized and destroyed by the host on future encounters. The ...

... middle of paper ...

...rial%20VirusesSV.pdf
Florent, Laferrière. "Quaternary Structure of Pathological Prion Protein as a Determining Factor of Strain-Specific Prion Replication Dynamics. ." . N.p., 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. .
"Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Fact Sheet." : National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Office of Communications and Public Liaison, 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. .
Carter, J. Stein. "Viruses." Viruses. N.p., 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. .
"Bacterial Cell Interactive Animation." Bacteria Model: An Interactive Animation. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

More about Viruses, Bacteria, and Prions

Open Document